The present invention relates to an art in which a film stuck to a plate is peeled therefrom and discharged.
In a printed circuit board for an electronic machine such as a computer, wirings of copper or the like are provided in a prescribed pattern on one or both sides of an electrically insulating plate. The printed circuit board is manufactured as described from now on. A stratified body consisting of a photosensitive resin layer, which is a photoresist layer, and a cover film, which is made of a light-transmissible resin and protects the photosensitive resin layer, is first stuck, under heat and pressure, to an electroconductive layer provided on the plate. A wiring pattern film is then overlaid on the stratified body. The photosensitive resin layer is thereafter exposed to light through the wiring pattern film and the cover film for a prescribed time. After the wiring pattern film and the cover film are removed, the exposed photosensitive resin layer is developed so that an etching mask pattern is formed. The unnecessary portions of the electroconductive layer are thereafter removed by etching. The remaining portions of the photosensitive resin layer are then removed. The printed circuit board having the wirings in the prescribed pattern is thus manufactured.
An automatic film peeling apparatus, which is a machine for automatically peeling such a film from such a layer, was developed as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 271356/89 (the term "OPI" as used herein means an "unexamined published application") corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,861, issued Mar. 19, 1991. The apparatus peels a part of the film stuck to a plate, peels the other parts of the film starting with the border of the latter part on the former, and then discharges the peeled film. The apparatus includes a first film conveyance means by which the film having the former part peeled from the plate is conveyed upward over the surface of the plate while the film is pinched by a belt conveyor so that the film is peeled from the plate, and a second film conveyance means by which air is blown to the film conveyed by the first film conveyance means, so that the film is conveyed to a peeled film container.
As for the automatic film peeling apparatus mentioned above, the plate is temporarily stopped when the tightness of the contact between the former part of the film and the plate is reduced or the part is peeled from the plate. For that reason, the efficiency of the peeling of the film from the plate is low. This is a problem.